


Remember When?

by TDKeh16



Series: Tumblr Fics and Prompts [11]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: "if we're both still single when" trope, Fluffy Ending, M/M, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Friendship, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Unresolved Romantic Tension, holsom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-03
Updated: 2016-09-03
Packaged: 2018-08-12 19:22:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7946158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TDKeh16/pseuds/TDKeh16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ransom and Holster made an agreement during their junior year at Samwell: "If we're both still single when we're thirty, we should just marry each other."</p><p>Holster's 30th birthday came and went without mention of it, but now Ransom is turning thirty. Does he remember? The promise they made all those years ago?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember When?

**Author's Note:**

> From the prompt: "Remember when we were in college and we swore that if we were still single at 30 we’d marry each other? Well hey, guess whose birthday it is!”

Ransom was turning thirty. Did he remember? The promise they had made all those years ago?

 

"We're all fucking sexy. Why the FUCK are we all still single?" Shitty had loudly declared for all the Haus to hear at the start of Ransom and Holster's junior year. While he had continued on demanding that Jack explain why he was still single, Holster turned to Ransom.

"Man's got a point. I've got no clue why _you're_ single, bro."

"Same for you, Holtzy," Ransom replied, looking over at Jack stumble through a response with the word 'hockey' receiving multiple mentions. "Jack might be right. We spend all our time with the team. No time for anyone else."

"Shit. We might be single forever." Holster laughed, pushing down the little way his heart fluttered every time he was called 'Holtzy' by Ransom.

"Well, at least we've got each other, bro."

"Hey, if we're both still single when we're thirty, maybe we should just marry each other."

"Genius! I'm in!" Ransom laughed.

"R-really?"

"Sure, why not? Shake on it."

Holster stared at Ransom's outstretched hand and his heart skipped a beat. It was just a joke, right? They were not even going to remember this a week from now. Right?

 

Seven years passed and Holster turned thirty. He remembered. Ransom took him out for a nice dinner and they talked about everything and anything... Anything but that joke. Holster wondered if he even remembered agreeing, and was too embarrassed to bring it up himself. It was probably the first time Holster could remember purposely not telling Ransom what was on his mind.

Two more years has passed and here they were again. Out for a walk together after a nice dinner -- Holster's treat, this time. Ransom had dated a few women over the past couple years, nothing lasting more than six months, and Holster? Holster's last breakup was a month before his 30th birthday -- when he realized that Ransom was _**it**_ for him. There was nobody else he wanted, nobody he could imagine ever wanting more...

"So... The big three-oh, huh?" Holster sidestepped a puddle on the ground as they strolled through a nearby park in the dark.

"Yeah, bro. What should I expect? Got any pointers?"

"Well, your best years are behind you, that's for sure. Hate to break it to you, Dr. Oluransi, but it's all downhill from here."

"Damn. I had a feeling..." Ransom chuckled. He looked over at Holster and smiled. "Thanks for taking me out for dinner, by the way."

"Dude, you already thanked me at the restaurant."

"No, I mean... It's been a while since we've hung out like this. Just the two of us, you know? We used to do it all the time. I've missed this. _Us,_ you know?" He gestured to the air between them. "Why don't we hang out one-on-one anymore?"

"Oh, well, you know..." Holster evaded.

"I _don't_ though. Holtzy..."

He sighed. "It's nothing big, just, you know, girlfriends and stuff." Holster shrugged.

"You have a girlfriend now? You should've told me. Since when?"

" _I_ don't have a girlfriend, but you usually do, so... Do you?"

Ransom shook his head. "No," he said, hesitating with his next question. "So... When you say specifically that you don't have a _girlfriend_... Is that a lying-by-omission way of getting around saying you have a boyfriend?"

"What? No. Do you?" Holster laughed it off.

"We broke up last week."

Holster stopped walking, feeling as though he had been punched in the gut. "You..." He cleared his throat and forced his legs back into motion when Ransom gave him a funny look. "That sucks, man."

"It's fine. I only dated him for like, a month. Nothing serious."

Holster tried to mask his sigh of relief with a sharp cough. He rubbed his arm, feigning like he was trying to warm himself from a chill in the late-March night air. "Well anyway, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Are you?" Ransom stepped in a puddle and gave his foot a little extra stamp to shake the water from his dress shoe. Holster did not respond, so he continued. "Hey, do you remember our junior year? When we promised we'd get married if we were both single at 30?"

"...That was a really long time ago."

"But you remember, right?"

Holster nodded his head. "Yeah. Of course I do."

"Did you mean that?"

"Well, it's a classic TV trope--"

" _ **Adam**._ "

"Yeah. I meant it. I'm sorry." He stopped walking again, suddenly overcome with emotion. Everything Holster had pushed down for years came bubbling back up to the surface. He was about to ruin everything, but he couldn't stop himself. "I've loved you for years. I'm sorry. I know that I've probably fucked up for good but Rans... _Justin_... You're the one for me. I don't know what I'd do without you in my life. I'm sorry."

Ransom shook his head. "Why do you keep apologizing?"

"Because all these years you've thought I was your friend and meanwhile--"

"You mean you _weren't?_ " Ransom smiled. "Over a decade of friendship just a façade to get in my pants?"

"Well, _no_ , but-"

"Holtzy," Ransom said as he grabbed his hand. "I love you. I'm sorry I didn't say it sooner. I thought that maybe you didn't think of me as anything more than your friend."

"...Since when?"

"Two years ago. Maybe a month or two before your birthday... That old promise popped into my head one day and I couldn't shake it. I had a girlfriend at the time, but all I could think of was you. That's when I _knew_..." He closed a little more distance between them, resting his head on Holster's shoulder. "I took you out for your birthday, and I _wanted_ to say something, but I chickened out. Every time the conversation turned back to our Samwell days, I thought you would bring it up, but you didn't, and I was so afraid of scaring you away... Or worse, realizing I was just caught in some wave of nostalgia and wasn't _actually_ in love..."

"Oh..."

"I think everyone I dated after that was some failed attempt to get over you... But nothing worked. I'm in love with you. There's nobody else in this world who ever _has,_ or ever _will_ make me happier than you."

Holster kissed him without warning, causing Ransom to let out a surprised laugh against his lips. "I love you too."

"So... Are you going to ask, or am I?"

"Will you marry me, Justin?"

"Yes," Ransom said, pulling him in for another kiss. "Even though you're a total liar," he teased.

Holster wrapped his arms around Ransom's waist. "When have I ever lied to you?" He grinned.

"You told me the best years of my life were already behind me."

**Author's Note:**

> So fluffy. Just... Wholesome Holsom, folks. Disgustingly fluffy. I'm sorry. Lol!


End file.
